


Decommissioning

by lasairfhiona



Category: Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-05
Updated: 2011-10-05
Packaged: 2017-10-24 08:29:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/261242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lasairfhiona/pseuds/lasairfhiona
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry watches Nautilus come home for the last time</p>
            </blockquote>





	Decommissioning

**Author's Note:**

> For more information on the USS Nautilus check out this web site that gives a virtual tour as well as the history of the boat http://www.ussnautilus.org/index.html

Admiral Harriman Nelson stood on the pier at Mare Island Naval Shipyard and watched as the USS Nautilus came in from its last day at sea. Admiral Roy Park had called him to let him know when Nautilus had left Groton began the journey that would take it through the Panama Canal and up the California coast to San Francisco to Mare Island. His old friend was one of the few people who knew what the submarine meant to him personally. Roy had kept abreast of any changes to Nautilus's schedule, so he could change Seaview's schedule, enabling him to be on the pier when Nautilus came home for the last time.

He'd flown in from Santa Barbara last night with only his personal log from his days as Commander of the Nautilus as reading material. He'd spent the night at the base BOQ so he wouldn't be far from the boats. He'd spent the night reading the log - it was full of cruise notes, comments about officers and crew, antidotes he'd saved for posterity, and his list of  
young officers and crew members to keep an eye on. He smiled when he saw Lee's name. Little had he known then the role Lee would play in his life.

Six years ago Lee had come on board Seaview as her new captain and changed Harry's life. It hadn't taken much for him to fall in love with the man the junior officer he'd first met had become. It took less than a year before they stopped dancing around one another and  
became lovers. They had been together ever since. They complimented each other both at home and at work. And while they had no secrets from each other, he couldn't tell Lee about his trip. This was something he needed to do alone.

He'd left Lee a note, since his lover was on duty overseeing a maintenance procedure, stating that he would be out of town for a few days and caught a shuttle to San Francisco. Harry knew he'd catch hell from Lee later for leaving without him or at least explaining his departure. This was something he couldn't talk about right now, not even his lover. He wanted to be here to see Nautilus dock for the last time. He'd seen her launch from Electric Boat's Shipyard in Connecticut as a junior officer with a bottle of champagne broken across her bow by the First Lady Mamie Eisenhower, back on a cold blustery January day in 1954.

He decided that day as he watched Nautilus slide into the frigid Thames River that he wanted to command her and he got his chance twelve years later. In so many ways Nautilus had changed his life. Watching her launch determined the direction Harry wanted to take with his naval career. And on board Nautilus, at the large wardroom table, is where the plans for the Seaview and the Nelson Institute for Marine Research were born.

She was docking now. The topside watch and the dockside line handlers were busy passing the lines and securing Nautilus to the pier. He'd come back tomorrow once the boat was squared away and talk to Captain Riddell and tour the sub one last time before they began the decommissioning process that would gut her. He wanted to walk through her passageways one last time and stand in her control room and attack center. He wanted to close his eyes and remember the days he stood there in command of this groundbreaking vessel. He wanted to stand in the captain's quarters one last time and run his hand across the desk he'd spent hours sitting at and the bed he'd spent too few hours sleeping in. He wanted to walk through the torpedo room and stand among the twenty-four weapons and be thankful he never had to fire one of those in hostility even though they had been in dangerous waters many times. And he wanted to visit the engine room and run his hand across the turbines and look through the leaded glass window to the reactor that changed the face of the Navy.

Harry knew he'd come back for the official ceremony. He'd stand and be counted as one of her captains and he would listen as they spoke of the Nautilus's twenty-five year career and the nearly half-million miles cruised. He would listen as they read off the records she'd set: The longest submerged cruise without snorkeling, highest sustained underwater speed, longest time spent continually submerged and the fact she was the first submarine to transit the north pole.

Many of Nautilus's records had been broken since she set them by bigger and better submarines including Seaview but when they were set, Nautilus was the best there was.  
Harry was proud of the fact he'd had a small part in Nautilus's history and a hand setting one of those records.

Nautilus was secured now and the gangway was in place. The crew was starting to come out and Harry knew it was time for him to leave. Every sailor has their own ritual they follow at the end of a cruise and would be more poignant now since it was the last cruise for their grey lady. He'd leave them for now and come back tomorrow when maybe it would be just like  
any other work-day for those sailors on duty.

Harry gave Nautilus one last look, his own last day on her fresh in his mind after reading his log the night before and turned away heading back up the pier toward the BOQ. As he neared the end a familiar figure leaned against the hood of his car.

"Lee," Harry said, surprised to see his lover.

"I thought I'd find you here. You aren't the only one Admiral Park called with Nautilus's schedule," Lee said as he waited for Harry to join him.

Leaning his back on the car next to Lee, Harry explained, "I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I needed to do this alone."

"I understand," Lee said quietly, putting his hand on Harry's arm. "We both have a lot of memories tied up with that boat. I drove up last night remembering the various cruises -- remembering the first time I saw you."

Harry laughed, "I remember a cocky junior officer on his first sea tour trying to impress me as he qualified for his dolphins." He remembered a lot more about Lee but he'd wait until they were alone to tell Lee the things he remembered about him -- things that caught his attention and drove him crazy even then.

Laughing along with Harry, Lee replied, "I was a little full of myself back then, wasn't I?"

"You still are," Harry added.

"I like it better when I am full of you," Lee whispered, not looking at Harry, knowing how tempted he'd be if he saw Harry's expression.

"Later, Laddy," Harry said, laughing and coughing at the same time as a result of Lee's outrageousness.

"Let's go to the officers club and drink a toast to the Nautilus. We both owe her so much."

Harry nodded then turned and walked around to the passenger side of Lee's car. He stopped and rested his hands on the roof before getting in. "Lee, will you come back with me for the  
decommissioning ceremony?"

"You know I will," Lee answered.

"Good," Harry said thumping the roof before opening the door. Watching Nautilus come in from her final cruise he had to do alone. He'd seen her start her career and he'd seen her finish her career, but going to the actual ceremony that would be held in several months he didn't want to do alone and wouldn't have to.

 

*End*

 

When the end comes, the loss of flame brings darkness, but his glory is  
bright and forever. -- from Richard Basehart's poem at the closing of the 1984 Olympics


End file.
